Fighting For Justice

LOL… I’m not Batman, Spiderman nor Superman. But I think I have the responsibilities to defend Millenials and 90’s. Part of it is because I am a 90’s, but the root cause is the insult from Gen X. Let’s begin with a real life experience before judging the whole situation.

On one fine day of 2015 (I don’t remember the exact day), my ex-company organized an event known as Ideathon. This event mainly for ice-breaking and allows everyone to share their creative idea which may be useful for future client’s brief. This is a good opportunity because in a big company, the roles are very specific and niche. Therefore, not everyone gets the chance to brainstorm client’s brief and share their creative thoughts. So, gave some applause to the organizer. Honestly, I enjoyed the event, a lot. Apart from getting the chance to meet people who you hardly meet in the office, you get to learn other people’s point of view. Fascinating and wonderful learning process.

However, there is a disappointing moment, which relevant to my topic today. The organizer invited Mr. Gen X to share some ideas and experience on the stage. We were all excited and looking forward to his presentation as he is a well-known Creative Lead. Those ideas he offered are always goosebump and give people the “Wow” effect. However, he started his presentation by asking 90’s to guess those portraits he shows on the slides. He asked the seniors to be settle down and witness the 90’s humiliate ourselves because he bet we won’t know who they are. Apparently, we successfully named all the portrait he shown such as Leonardo Da Vincci, Pablo Picasso, Michelangelo and several more which I don’t remember. I felt instant insult when he mentioned “I need some help from the seniors to keep quiet and let the 90’s answer because I’m sure they don’t know who they are.” Throughout the slide show, he kept mentioning “Only 90’s answer.”

If prejudice towards race is racist, I can pronouced him as “Generationist”.

What’s the matter with 90’s? Seriously, what’s wrong with 90’s? Why do you have to insult 90’s publicly because I don’t see you get any fame from doing it? So are you fucking proud now, Mr. Gen X? Or we, the 90’s disappointed you because we answered correctly. He is just a representative of Gen X and most of the Gen X think alike. 90’s are spoon-feed kid, lazy, impatient, tech-savvy, love shortcuts, not durable, complaints king and queen, skilless, tactless, … Come on, what’s wrong with Gen X?

I have come across an infographic in Linkedin and till now, I still can’t digest the information. This infographic is widely shared on social media, mostly by the Gen X. Let’s go through the contents. Baby Boomers are successors, Gen X are managers and Millenials the enthusiastic entrepreneur. Look at the negative side, Baby Boomers are restless, Gen X are less efficient and Millenials? Unproductive and self-obsessed.

Seriously? After joining the workforce for some period, I learnt that Baby Boomers are Sly Foxes, Gen X are a bunch of Con Artists and undeniable that Millenials are lazy. Let’s get my point straight, look at those successful Baby Boomers around you. They are freakingly rich, owned international businesses, big house, luxury cars and not forgetting the black market they invest their money, the money laundry and etc. So, if you choose to look at the positive way, they are less adaptable and collaborative because they are afraid once change, all the dirty moves are publicly shown. So, do you agree with me they are sly foxes now? You really think they are reluctant to learn? Or there are actually other parts of them that they are too afraid to show? Gen X are good with sweet talk and flattering. What else they know? Any skill? Any talent? I’m afraid there is nothing. All they did are put on a nice show, get the fame when things successes, but disappear immediately when things fails. Con artist is perfect to describe Gen X. I totally disagree with the point that Millenials are unproductive. Yes, Millenials are lazy. Why? Because of the high-technology. So, we learn shortcuts and alternatives which help us to be more effective and productive. Seniors might label us as lazy because we have done our work and we got more free time for other things. Is this our fault? Well, this is all my personal experience and opinions which I witness in my workplace. So, do you think this infographic reliable? Do you still think you statistic making sense?

The 1,200 opinions define the whole society?

I have done some simple calculation that shows 1,200 sample size is qualified to define the whole census. However, who are the 1,200? Let’s use the US 2016 Presidential Election as an example. Trump wins Hilary when the statistic are 98% confirmed that Hilary wins the president position. So isn’t this funny? Is it all the statistician who involved in this calculation should check on their formula? No, nothings wrong with the formula, is the data. Data is manually collected and humans are the one who answers the survey. Honestly, people change their mind everyday. Today you like pancakes, tomorrow you like peter pan. So, data change frequently. Since this company, the UXC Professional Solutions is an experienced company, your statistician should always alert the importance of timeframe. Even I, with a statistic degree holder understand the existence of covariance. Are you supposed to add this variable in your estimation? Since you do not label the level of significance there, that means this infographic is 100% accurate and precise. Isn’t this error II?

Another point that I would like to raise is that since this is an artwork produce by a professional research company, to be fair, do you interviews all the 1,200 workers at the same age? Come on, if you wanna do it right, let’s compare apple to apple. Do the Baby Boomers data collect when they first join the company or after five years working? How about Gen X? I am certain that Millenials data are collected up to date because we aren’t that old yet. So if this data fair enough to define everyone? Back to 30 years ago when Baby Boomers first join the workplace, are they rebelion like Millenials? Are they self-obsessed like Millenials? How about Gen-X in 20 years ago when they fresh-graduates? Are they born to be a problem-solver? How about collaboration skills? You guys ask their superior before?

Last but not least, Millenials are the kids of Baby Boomers, siblings of Gen X. Do you really think this two generations are qualified to complain on Millenials when they fail to educate their younger one? Seriously Millenials does not pop out from stone / rock, flush out of the toilets or fall from sky. Please stop pointing fingers at Millenials, have you done your part as a parent, elder brother and sister? Don’t say it like none of your business and push away the responsibilities which is part of the Baby Boomers and Gen X talent. Ego and selfish that shape this two generations to be irresponsible. I’m not saying that Millenials are perfec,t but at least, we do not insult or humiliate other generations. Pay some respect!

This is an infographic based on a survey of 1,200 workers. Now let’s apply some statistic here.

Australian population (Updated 15th Nov 2016) = 24,273,141,

Australian labor force (Updated: Sept 2016) = 11,959,500,

Australian full-time employment (Updated: Sept 2016) = 8,105,300

*Full-time employees will represent the Australian working population in my calculation because there are no clearly specific numbers of white collars or PMEB (Professionals, Manager, Excutive, Businessman) shown in ABS (Australia Bureau of Statistic).

Now we have sample size and population, lets fill in the blank to generate the significance level.

So, we get a 2.83% margin of error and 95% confidence level for Australian full-time employment population which shows that the number of sample size to stand for all the Millenials are significant. But, can this infographic define the world?